Into the Breach
by LarkEdwards
Summary: One shot fic. An older Alec contemplates whether he made the right decision in letting Kiera go.


Into the Breach

Ever since the day they said goodbye to the protector, Jason's father had been a different person. Not sad, necessarily, but quieter. Stronger. Possessed of a determination to make a better future. And although he never seemed to want to talk about it, Jason knew it was all for _her_. That's how he knew that when Alec trailed off and looked away from the sketches they'd been discussing to peer out at the creeping dark that he was thinking of Kiera again.

Jason waited a moment before tapping his father's hand. "Dad?"

"Hmm?" Alec started, looking at his son ( _twenty years my senior—will I ever quite get used to this?)_ with eyes that weren't quite focused.

"Dad? You were saying? About safe nonlethal weapons we could design?"

"Right." Alec sighed and rubbed his eyes, turning off the light and leaving the condo dark. "Jason, I'd like to talk about this some more, but I think I just need to stop for tonight. Alright? We can talk about it tomorrow."

"Ok." He stood up to head upstairs, then hesitated. "Do you…want to talk about it?"

Alec laughed. "No, Jason. See you in the morning."

Not a little relieved, Jason went off to his room.

Alone with his thoughts now, Alec let himself think about Kiera. It had been five years since he'd last seen her; since she'd strode off into that portal. Five years of planning, and building, bonding with Carlos and Garza and spending time with the son he would now never conceive in this timeline. And most of the time, he was able to stop himself from thinking about her. It would be another fifty years until he could see her again, and while she'd tumble through that portal just as young and vital as she'd been when she left, he'd be old and any feelings he had for her would be ridiculous or invisible. And anyway, she would have a husband and a son to go back to. Or at least, that's what Alec wanted for her, even if a small mean part of him wanted her to be alone and lonely and to have only him. He knew it wasn't healthy, but their relationship was built on need in only one direction. She needed him. She always needed him. And it wasn't until she went home through the time portal that Alec realized that all along, he had needed her as well.

But of course, all of this was pointless. Alec had a purpose now. Kiera was his past, and the future he and his small contingent of allies was creating was not just for her, but for all of them. They needed a future without the Corporate Congress, without turmoil and upheaval, without the need for either super soldiers or Liber8. And he knew that he was the man to build that future.

And Emily, his faithful friend, could once again become more than that, if only Alec would approach her as he had before. Or maybe she wouldn't, but she certainly would never let him back in if he didn't reach out to her. It was time to move on, Alec resolved determinedly. Away from these strange, unresolved feelings for Kiera. Time to see whether he could build a life in the present and to stop thinking about just the future.

Unless.

Here he hesitated. There were so many unknowns, that's true, and hadn't he learned that messing with time could get you in trouble? And yet.

What if the future they built meant that there was nothing for Kiera in the future they created? What if all of this work to build a better future was wonderful for everyone but the woman who had worked so hard to achieve it? He knew in the depths of his being that if Kiera thought he needed saving she would come for him.

It would take time to reinvent time travel, but Alec knew he could do it if he needed to. And although his team had never successfully completed a mission of just reconnaissance (here, Alec though of Lucas with a pang), there were no obstacles standing in his way this time. No one bent on destruction, and no one to double cross anyone else. All Alec wanted to do was find a way to go forward and see her. Just to see if she made it back to her old life. That would bring him the necessary closure, after which he could finally move on from—what, exactly?—and build a future with someone else.

It was time for one last mission.

* * *

"I'll only be gone a few hours! _Maybe_ a few days."

"If everything goes as planned," Carlos observed dryly. They were having sandwiches on a park bench. Like spies, neither man looked at the other. "Look. You're not done here. What if something were to happen to you?"

Alec sighed. "Then Julian and Jason would help you build the future. Look, I have to do this! I have to know what happened to her."

"And then what? She never planned to stay here, you know. She'll never come back with you."

"I know that!" Did he?

"So why are you going?"  
"I told you already. I have to know."

Carlos leveled a look at Alec that he knew all too well. He met the other man's gaze and then looked away. "Maybe I just want to see if I can do it. You know? Maybe I just want to see if it would work. I figured out I needed to do this five years ago, and it's taken me this long to replicate the device as best I can. I'm a scientist! I can't put so much energy into something and then just…let it dissipate."

"And maybe you've still got a crush on an unattainable woman. She was never for any of us, you know."

Alec hesitated, then shook his head. "Maybe I do," he admitted. "But maybe that's why I need to go, you know? Maybe I need to see her there, happy and surrounded by people she loves. Maybe I need to know that she doesn't need me anymore. Then I can move on."

Carlos laughed, surprising Alec, and then crumpled up his sandwich wrapper, throwing it in a nearby trashcan. "Well, kid, maybe you're right at that. Tell her I say hi, ok?"

* * *

This time, there was no one shooting or dying. It was eerily peaceful as they powered up the machine. Alec looked around at his compatriots. Garza, who'd flown back in from the Dominican Republic to "keep an eye on things" while he was gone. Carlos, getting greyer every year but never wavering. Jason, in a way robbed of his own existence, but loyal nonetheless to the father that made a conscious choice never to create him. Dillon, the phoenix, almost dead so many times but somehow always pulling through. Emily, once the love of his life, currently a dear, dear friend. They looked at him quite seriously.

"This is a terrible idea," Jason fretted, the first one to break the silence.

"Yeah." Alec felt peaceful for the first time in a while. "It is. So guys, you all know the plan, right?"  
The plan, at least as far as most of them knew, was to keep the portal open for a week, after which they'd shut the machine off and lock it up securely. Only Garza knew the full plan, in which if Alec failed to return, the machine would need to be destroyed to preserve the future they were building. He looked her way quickly and was satisfied to see her nod. Garza had watched all of her compatriots die one by one to prevent a terrible future. She of all people wouldn't hesitate to do what needed to be done.

He took a deep breath, and then he walked into the portal.


End file.
